As the world's population continues to age, the number of people expecting to become caregivers of a loved one grows at an increasing rate. Other populations, such as working parents with children, disabled people, and chronically ill patients also tend to require some level of care. The amount of stress upon a typical caregiver can be enormous. For example, many caregivers tend to lose a non-trivial and often significant amount of their wages, benefits, and free time in order to care for their loved ones. In addition, many people in need of care, particularly senior citizens, generally wish to age in peace. That is, these care recipients generally prefer to not be placed in a care facility, such as a nursing home.
Many care recipients tend to prefer that caregivers not be a regular part of their lives; rather, care recipients may desire that caregivers only become involved on an as-needed basis, e.g., in case of emergency. In addition, it may not be feasible for a caregiver to maintain a constant presence with the care recipient as the caregiver may have a full-time job away from the care recipient, for example. Furthermore, the provision of constant attention by a caregiver can be an inefficient use of time and may consequently result in an overall reduction in the quality of care provided by the caregiver, particularly in the case of a care recipient that is generally in good health.
Thus, there remains a need for a way to address these and other problems associated with the prior art.